Paytm's offline transactions crosses Rs 150 crore in value

The Alibaba-backed payments platform has clocked 25 million offline transactions in the past six days aloneSupraja Srinivasan | Updated: November 17, 2016, 09:01 IST

Paytm's efforts to pad up its offline business and make the most of the government's demonetisation drive are bearing fruit. The Alibaba-backed payments platform has clocked 25 million offline transactions in the past six days alone, the company said. The offline transactions’ total Rs 150 crore in value.

This growth comes less than a week after Paytm speed-tracked and introduced the 'Nearby' feature which allows customers to discover merchants that accept the digital wallet in their vicinity. With a cash crunch gripping customers and traders alike, Paytm's Nearby feature aims to carry a directory of over 8 lakh offline merchants and partners on Paytm's platform with 2 lakh merchants included in the first phase.

"The offline share of our business has surpassed online in the past five days and forms around 68-70% of the business now from the 50% earlier," Deepak Abbot, senior vice-president, Paytm, told ET.

The digital payments firm also introduced the app in 10 regional languages, including Hindi, to cater to rising traffic from tier-II and tier-III cities, Abbot said. Through the multi-lingual visibility alone, the company is expecting to grow its business 80%. Smaller rival MobiKwik, which has a similar offline feature, has seen an additional 200% in downloads in the past few days, while adding 2,00,000 users every day as reported by ET earlier. MobiKwik has accelerated its plans to reach small merchants and businesses across top cities through multiple tie-ups, radio and SMS campaigns.

For Paytm, local travel and transport has been the bread winner as far as its offline revenue pie goes. "Transport has done very well in the past five days with around 8,50,000 transactions per day as against the 3,00,000 per day before the drive. At the rate at which the business is happening, we might even see 4-5x growth now," said Abbot.